VLCC shifts gears to high growth mode in MENA region, with expansion and acquisition

"While this build-up has been delivered through organic growth, VLCC is now looking to accelerate this further through aggressive expansion and inorganic growth, for which the funding will come through a combination of debt and private equity," said a company official.

Having finalised organic growth plans to be financed through internal accrual and debt which has already been tied up, VLCC is also going in for a round of private equity funding for acquisition of companies in the Wellness space in the region, for which the mandate has been given to the leading investment banking firm, JM Financial.

VLCC has already participated up to the due diligence stage for acquisition of two prominent players in the Wellness domain in the MENA and South East Asia regions and will be in a position to make a formal announcement about the same in the coming 3 to 4 weeks. Simultaneously, it is currently evaluating three target companies in other geographies.

The next 12 months will see VLCC's slimming, beauty and fitness centre (VLCC Centres) operations expanding from the current 8 countries of UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal to an additional 9 countries, including Kuwait, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar with the target of crossing 220 company-owned VLCC Centres globally by 2015.

With companies already incorporated in Kuwait, KSA and Egypt, the Kuwait operations are, in fact, slated to commence by January 2013, while KSA and Egypt launches are planned for April 2013.

VLCC has also initiated a feasibility study to set up a manufacturing facility in either UAE or Bahrain for its VLCC Personal Care line of herbal/natural skin-care, body-care and hair-care products, which have found a ready and fast growing market in the GCC within 5 years of launch. This will be the VLCC Group's 4th manufacturing facility, with the first two being already operational in India and the third one to go on-stream by December 2012 in Bangladesh.

As a leading player in the Wellness domain, VLCC is currently present across over 300 locations in 120 cities in 16 countries through its VLCC Slimming, Beauty & Fitness Centres, the VLCC Institutes of Beauty & Nutrition and the VLCC Personal Care line of skin-care, body-care and hair-care products.